The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1887-06-25
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
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Recent weather charts of the British Meteorolo-
pical Council show that during the entire autumn
a permanent area of high barometer is situated
in the md-Atlantic south of the parallel of forty
degrees. North of this low pressure tracks are
very frequent. Many of the storms originate over
the United States, and they often gather force
after starting on their eastward course over the
Atlantic, sometimes even entirely crossing the
ocean. The vicinity of Newfoundland, where hot
and cold waters meet and there great differ
ences of air temperature in very small area, has
great influence upon the weather of the Atlantic
and Of the British Islands. Here are formed
many storms, while some are here stopped and
suddenly broken up.
FRUSTRATING coFFINs.
The ancient Roman coffin, according to Pliny,
was generally of stone. In some cases it was of
q peculiar kind Of stone, which was claimed to
have the faculty of destroying the entire body
with the exception of the teeth, in forty days.
Hence the name "sarcophagus," literally meaning
fesh-eater. The stone is now supposed to have
been q species of limestone.
THE DECAY OF TEETH.
Not only are the diseases ordinarily regarded
as contagious or infectious, including even con-
sumption and pneumonia, attributed to microbes,
but even badness is found to be sometimes pro-
duced by microscopic organisms, and Miller's
researches in 1884 indicate that decay of the teeth
is chiefly due to the development of one or more
species. As Trouessart states, the presence of
acids introduced into the mouth, or developed by
certain diseases (ucers, thrush, etc. which are
themselves produced by microbes, appears to be
the predsposing cause ofthe dental carries. These
acids begin by softening the dentine, deprived at
some point of its superficial coating of enamel,
and through this the organisms enter. Saliva can
be rendered experimentally acid by mixing it for
four hours, at a temperature Of seventy degrees,
with sugar and starch. Hence the injuriousness
of confectionery, long and correctly supposed to
be the cause of the early decay of teeth, especial
ly in children who eat it in excess.
ANATOMICAL ABNoRMALITIEs.
Among many abnormalities illustrating recent
paper before the Liverpool Biological Society, one
of the most interesting was human heart, the
owner of which had managed to exist for sixty
years in spite of a peculiar malformation which
theoretically should have prevented the action OF
the heart, but did not, owing to an abnormal
modification. In the discussion following was
mentioned the case of person in whom the alb
normality was found of seven muscles peculiar to
the apes.
WORK OF NATURES SCULPTOR.
We are accustomed to associate such gigantic
water carvings as the Colorado canon and the
Niagara gorge with almost uncomfortable periods
of time, yet instances numerous OF the wearing
from the solid rock of gorges hundreds of feet
deeply two or three centuries only of work. Lyell
mentions the case of the Simeto, in Sicily, which
-
a half centuries it had excavated channel fifty
to several hundred feet deep, and in some parts,
forty to fifty feet wide, although the rock is a
hard basalt. He also describes gorge in decom-
posed rock, near Milledgeville, Ca, that was at
first mud-crack yard deep, but which, in TWEEN
ty years. was 800 yards long, 20 to lSO feet wide
and SIS feet deep and Liais describes a similar
gorge of twice the length in Brazil, made in forty
years. But it is in the low lands bordering rivers
that the floods artist finds the plastic material that
may be remolded with each passing season. With
high water, the streams rapidly wear into earthly
banks, commencing new bends or cutting of old
ones, and even opening new channels for dis
charge. The great and turbulent Hoang- no Is
noted for its devastations, says Dana. In 1891
it emptied into the Yellow Sea; now this mouth
is dry, and it has a new channel opening to the
Gulf of Pechele, nearly 800 miles north of its
former outlet, and it departed from the old chan
mel more than this distance from the coast This
is the last of many changes, back and forth, re-
corded by the Chinese during the past 5000 years.
MISCELLANEOUS.
A French manufacturer has applied electricity
to the aid of weavers in q somewhat curious man
ner. He has attached to each of his looms an in
Dictator which sounds when thread breaks, rem
dering unnecessary the eye-wearying watching
of the fast moving threads.
In honor of the Queens jubilee year, the Bal
loon Society of Great Britain has offered its medal
and one hundred quineas for discovery render
ing electricity economical for heat light, chemical
action motive power, or treatment of disease.
A French physician, DR.. Martineau, claims to
have cured sixty-seven cases of diabetes out of
seventy treated. His specific is solution of car
Donate of lithia and arseniate of soda in aerated
water, used to the exclusion of other drinks.
Out of some 10000 species of birds recognized
by ornithologists, there are S59 species and sub
species which make their home in North America.
There are also 50 others which find their way to
this continent as stragglers from other countries.
The carpet-beetle, or buffalo-moth, was intro
duced into the United States from Europe in 1872,
and has since made its home in all parts of the
country. -